Philippine troops have arrested a senior officer of the Muslim Abu Sayyaf rebel group holding US and Filipino hostages in the south of the country.
At a news conference, the military presented a handcuffed Mr Nadzmi Sabdulla - alias Commander Global, or Al Shariff - who they said was arrested on Sunday with three other Abu Sayyaf members in the southern city of General Santos.
"The capture of Commander Global . . . is a great setback for the ASG [Abu Sayyaf] group," army Chief Lieut Gen Jaime de los Santos told a news conference.
"I think with this capture, we expect to get further information on their operations," he said.
Mr Sabdulla (40), who bowed his head throughout the news conference carried live on national television, is the highest-ranking Abu Sayyaf member ever arrested.
Mr Sabdulla's faction is different from the group that abducted 17 Filipinos and three Americans from a tourist resort off Palawan Island on May 27th and took them to Basilan Island.
The gunmen have freed most of their captives, after payment of ransoms, but took more Filipino hostages on Basilan. They have also beheaded four of their Filipino captives and claim to have beheaded one of the US tourists.
The Abu Sayyaf, with an estimated force of about 1,000, is demanding a Muslim homeland in the south of the mainly Roman Catholic Philippines.